GovTechGuy writes: Silicon Valley titan Intel thinks the economic downturn and crash in Wall Street's Q rating could equal a bump in recruitment for the old guard of America's tech industry. During a conversation with Hillicon Valley Intel's director for Global Public Policy Peter Cleveland said the U.S. simply doesn't produce enough M.A. and Ph.D. students in engineering, math and the hard sciences to fill the number of jobs that open up in the tech sector every year and noted that half of the graduate degrees in those fields awarded at American universities go to foreign students.

But Cleveland also acknowledged that one of the main reasons American engineering and science graduates don't pursue higher education is the range of lucrative careers available to them outside of working in the technological industry. Wall Street has long prized engineering and math graduates, while highly qualified American computer scientists often choose the entrepreneurial or management route rather than working in a technical capacity for a larger corporation.

The continued recession may be changing that dynamic, according to Cleveland. He said the growing distaste for Wall Street has made the manufacturing and development of hardware a more attractive field for America's best and brightest.

"We produce something real, and we manufacture it in this country. It's an essential part of many products," Cleveland said. "We're not producing a derivative instrument."Link to Original Source